U.S. service member killed in Yemen raid, first combat death under Trump administration

Missy Ryan and Thomas Gibbons-Neff The Washington Post WP Bloomberg

Published 2:15 pm, Sunday, January 29, 2017

A U.S. Special Operations member died of injuries suffered during a weekend raid against al-Qaida militants in Yemen, the military said Sunday.

Three other American troops, members of a Navy SEAL unit, were wounded in the operation on Saturday against members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The militant organization has remained a potent threat amid an extended civil war in Yemen.

The incident marks the first time a member of the U.S. military has died in combat since President Donald Trump took office a little more than a week ago. The ground operation, which had been planned for months, was authorized by Trump, according to U.S. officials familiar with the mission. Trump has pledged to wage a more aggressive campaign against militant groups worldwide.

A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an incident whose details have not been made public, said the slain service member was killed in a firefight with militants. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command (Centcom), 14 militants were killed during the operation.

The raid, which took place in a remote desert area of Yemen’s Shabwa governorate, aimed to obtain intelligence information, including computer material, that was thought to be linked to planning for external attacks. The official could not confirm whether U.S. allies had participated in the raid. In recent months, U.S. Special Operations forces have partnered with troops from the United Arab Emirates to help target and go after al-Qaida militants in Yemen.

Reports from the region indicate that more than a dozen civilians were killed in the raid as U.S. forces called in support to assist those fighting on the ground. U.S. officials, after indicating that they could not confirm reports of civilian casualties, said they were now assessing the claims. U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter aircraft provided cover for the raid force, according to another defense official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The aircraft dropped an unknown amount of munitions in support of the operation.

According to a report from the SITE Intelligence Group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula reported in a message on the Telegram messaging app that U.S. forces launched a helicopter attack and a ground raid on a Yemeni village, killing dozens of civilians. The militant group denied that any militants were killed and said the young daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who was killed in a 2011 drone strike, was one of the civilians who died.

The group reported that the operation took place in al-Bayda governorate, which borders Shabwa, SITE said. Last week, U.S. drone strikes hit militants in al-Bayda, killing five over the course of three days. The militant group also reported it had shot down an American attack helicopter.

U.S officials said that an Osprey, a tilt-rotor military aircraft, went down in a “crash landing” at a staging area near the site of the operation but said the mishap was not believed to be caused by militant fire. The disabled Osprey was then intentionally destroyed. Two service members were injured in that landing. The Osprey had been sent to recovered the forces wounded in operation.

U.S. Special Operations forces have maintained a small footprint in Yemen focused on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which has been one of the most active branches of al-Qaida and has been involved in plots to strike the West. The United States had maintained a robust counterterrorism operation in Yemen before the start of the civil war between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels in 2014.

In recent years, U.S. forces have resorted to primarily airstrikes to go after the militant group as it has taken advantage of the country’s unrest to gain territory and strengthen its numbers. Though not as externally active as the Islamic State, the group was linked to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France in 2015 and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.